Heysham 1 - LC14 Compliance Inspection

Site: Heysham 1

IR number: 15-149

Date: January 2016

LC numbers: 14

Executive summary

Purpose of intervention

The purpose of this intervention was to carry out a licence compliance inspection at the EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited’s (NGL’s) Heysham 1 power station in line with the planned inspection programme contained in the Heysham 1 Integrated Intervention Strategy (IIS) for 2015/16.

Interventions Carried Out by ONR

Explanation of Judgement if Safety System Not Judged to be Adequate

No safety system inspection was undertaken, hence this is not applicable.

Key Findings, Inspector's Opinions and Reasons for Judgements Made

Prior to this inspection, I carried out a review of the company LC14 procedures against the relevant ONR guidance documents for these licence conditions. I judged that these procedures provide adequate arrangements to satisfy the requirements of LC14.

In order to judge the adequacy of the implementation of these arrangements, I sampled a current safety case change covering an amendment to the operating regime of the Additional Fuel Storage Facility (AFSF). The revised safety case will reflect the current low power, and hence low pressure, operating regime and will result in a change to a nuclear safety requirement. This work should address ONR issue 3087 which was raised during a system based inspection of the AFSF in December 2014. ONR is currently reviewing the proposed NSR change.

It was noted that the corporate arrangements for writing or amending safety cases follow the same process as adopted for modifications under LC22. The LC22 arrangements were last inspected in November 2015 and judged adequate.

The revised safety case for the AFSF follow the LC14 and LC22 corporate arrangements and therefore, based on this sample, compliance with LC14 was judged adequate with an IIS rating of 3.

The intervention was performed in line with ONR’s guidance requirements (as described in our technical inspection guides) in the areas inspected.

Conclusion of Intervention

From the evidence gathered during this intervention, I do not consider there to be any matters that have the potential to impact significantly on nuclear safety.

At present, no additional regulatory action is needed over and above the planned interventions of Heysham 1 power station as set out in the Integrated Intervention Strategy, which will continue as planned.